Replacement safety sticker can cost less

Question: If someone steals your safety sticker from the car bumper, how do you get a new one? Do you have to go through the full safety inspection again and pay the full fee, or can you get a replacement sticker for a smaller fee?

Answer: It depends on the situation.

You can get a sticker replaced if you can show proof that the sticker had not expired.

You must return to the inspection station where you received the original sticker, because the record of inspection is held by that station, explained Dennis Kamimura, administrator of the city Motor Vehicle and Licensing Division.

The station may charge a replacement fee of up to $5 for administrative costs, although that fee is optional, he said.

Under the state Department of Transportation's administrative rules, there is no time limit on when you can get a stolen safety decal replaced without having to go through a reinspection, as long as you have proof that your sticker had not expired.

However, Kamimura said previously that a station has the right to say that your vehicle needs to be reinspected if there are obvious visual defects, no matter when your last inspection was done. If a reinspection is done, the station can charge the full inspection fee again.

A station could also have run out of the stickers for the particular month you want, and not be able to get a replacement. In that case, the station can charge you for a full reinspection for a more current safety check.

Auwe

Last Wednesday night, Hawaiian Telcom left hundreds of phone books outside our mailboxes at Kukui Gardens, blocking access for the handicapped and access to the post office boxes. Because it rained that night, the books were all ruined. Thursday morning, they left yet 50 or more books by our mailboxes again, all ruined and a waste. When I called Hawaiian Telcom, I got this runaround that I needed to call the distribution company because it was not their problem. Well, sorry, Telcom, it's your name on the book. -- Norman

She notes the company hires third-party vendors to distribute more than a million directories on Oahu. Many of the vendors are community groups and nonprofit organizations that take on the distribution as a fund-raiser, she said.

"Our contract specifies that the directories should be delivered to the customers' doors," Nishida said.

Regarding Kukui Gardens, new directories have been delivered door to door, while a crew was sent to remove the damaged books.

The group responsible for the previous delivery "has been released," Nishida said.

Distribution of Hawaiian Telcom directories was to be completed this month.